Cory Michael Smith
| birth_place = Columbus, Ohio, U.S. | residence = New York City, New York, U.S. | known for = Edward Nygma (Gotham) | education = Otterbein University | height = 6ft 0in }} Cory Michael Smith (born November 14, 1986) is an American actor. He currently portrays Edward Nygma in the Fox television drama series Gotham. He appeared in Camp X-Ray in 2014. He appeared in 2013 in Breakfast at Tiffany's on Broadway, which starred Emilia Clarke. Early and personal life A native of Columbus, Ohio, Smith was raised by his parents, David and Theresa (born Fagan) Smith, with his older brother Chad, and graduated from Hilliard Darby High School in 2005. He had aspirations ranging from becoming a concert pianist to a lawyer. While at Otterbein University, Smith was cast in such plays as The Scene, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Tartuffe. His major & minor were art musical theatre and jazz piano, respectively. He considered dropping out of art musical theatre for philosophy or pre-law. In a March 2018 article, he stated that he identifies as queer. Career In 2011, Smith was seen in the New York City premiere of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World at Playwrights Horizons and in 2009 to early 2012 could be seen in various regional theatre productions for the likes of New York Stage and Film. He starred in The Fantasticks at both Barrington Stage Company and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. He was also seen in Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them. Smith made his Broadway debut in Breakfast at Tiffany's in 2013. In the same theatre season, he also starred Off-Broadway in both the U.S. Premiere of Cock aka The Cockfight Play by Mike Bartlett and The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter which had its world premiere at Denver Center for the Performing Arts with the New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons. His first feature film was Camp X-Ray which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in January. He appeared in a short horror movie, Dog Food, co-starring Amanda Seyfried and premiered at the 2014 South by Southwest in March. Smith also appeared in the HBO mini-series Olive Kitteridge and the film Carol. ''Gotham'' |salign = right |source =—Smith, on playing Edward Nygma (2015)}} He currently appears in Gotham as Edward Nygma. Smith says in an interview about his current character, Edward Nygma, "What I’m really excited about is the bottom of that curve. Going from this quite innocent, well-intentioned, joyful person to starting to find this other part of him that he didn’t know he had — accessing this place where he responds to the unfortunate things that people are doing to him, and starting to realize how cruel people are to him and how they mistreat him, and then doing that back to them. He’s a person who’s constantly abused, and to finally reach a part of himself where he just can’t take it anymore and starts doing it to other people — and it’s out of anger and exhaustion, and then realizing that when you start taking control of situations like that, you can gain power that way — it’ll be something that he can start to enjoy." "Penguin and I could not have more different trajectories," Smith tells Yahoo TV. Cobblepot is "a very sadistic bully" from the beginning. Ed, by contrast, is "way, way out in left field," just "hanging out, doing his job, loving his work, loving science, having a good time, getting a little weird, being a little off the wall, a little eccentric." He's not really a bad guy — in fact, he's really more of an overgrown boy. His journey, Smith says, will be to "claim his identity and claim his power and perhaps finally become someone that is a player in the field and not just this irritating, flimsy young lad." Filmography Film Television Theatre Awards and nominations References External links * * * * * Cory Michael Smith on Broadway.com * Cory Michael Smith on TV.com Category:Living people Category:1986 births Category:21st-century American actors Category:American film actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:LGBT actors Category:Actors from Columbus, Ohio Category:Otterbein University alumni Category:Queer actors Category:Queer men Category:LGBT people from Ohio Category:LGBT entertainers from the United States